Mumbai University Result Delayed Again; Will Be Announced on Sep 19

Mumbai University has again delayed the results. This is for the fifth time when the University missed the self-imposed deadline of September 06, 2017. Earlier, the University missed the deadline on July 31, August 05, August 15, August 31, 2017. Now, the new date for the announcement of the result is September 19, 2017.

In all, the Mumbai University releases the result of 477 subjects, of which, the result for 463 subjects is yet to be announced. Much to the agitation of the candidates, the University has taken the duration of more than 100 days (and counting) to announce the result.

The delay in result announcement is hampering the future of more than 4 lakh students. They are neither able to check their result nor decide where to go further with their career. Fed up students filed a PIL against the University with the Bombay High Court.

The fiasco has its roots in issues faced in online paper checking. MU managing committee had from the beginning raised doubts regarding the implementation of the online checking system. However, the then Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh took sole responsibility for it and confirmed tenders in May. In reality, the University had no time to make this amendment and now students are bearing the brunt.

Following the chaos, the VC was sent on a vacation starting August 09, 2017, until the dust settled. Yet, the chances of the former coming into action seem next to impossible. After him, the responsibility of announcing the result was bestowed to Devanand B Shinde, VC of Shivaji University. He set up a task force and the checking process definitely escalated but the results are still awaited.

MU justified the further delay by informing Bombay HC that the examiners checking the result are humans and are not robots. It also added that they delay was also caused because of the Ganesh Utsav and Bakr-id, which were celebrated back to back.

As per the Maharashtra University act, all the Universities in the state are required to announce the result within 30 days from the conduct of the last exam. The deadline, if required, is only to be expanded until 45 days and not more than that. The delay of over 100 days is a clear indication the of failed management system, for which fingers have been raised on Sanjay Deshmukh.

The online assessment system was implemented at such a time when the infrastructure for it was not in place. The University was not ready for this change as it did not have trained staff and the whole process was thrown into complete disarray and uncertainty.